Vanity Fair

Remember way back in April when everyone went flying into a tizzy over those Vanity Fair photos of little ol’ Miley Cyrus hugging a bed sheet to her naked, 15-year-old chest? Consider this a minor addendum to that controversy. Disney—the same globo-corp that complained Annie Leibovitz had manipulated their star into those provocative poses—now gives us “Concert Candy,” a product tailor-made to elicit dirty thoughts in the minds of helpless sweet-tooths.  read more »

How do rumors get started? They get started, apparently, by journalists who seek to connect with powerful sources, according to Vanity Fair's Michael Wolff, who shares an excerpt from his upcoming Rupert Murdoch biography in the October issue of the magazine.

In Tuesdays with Rupert, Mr. Wolff writes:

[Mr. Murdoch] may be among the biggest gossips in New York. In the months of interviewing him, I found that the most reliable way to hold his interest was to bring him a rich nugget. His entire demeanor would change. He’d instantly light up. He’d go from distracted to absolutely focused. Gossip gives him life (and business opportunities).  read more »

DENVER—"There's my girl!" Chevy Chase bellowed as Madeline Albright walked into the backroom of the Vanity Fair-Google party on Thursday, August 28. The towering comedian, who was clad in a blazer, T-shirt and jeans, bent down to embrace his old friend. They discussed plans to get together—Mr. Chase promising an e-mail from "his people"—mugged for the cameras, and agreed that Barack Obama had nailed his speech. "If we're seen together, you're in trouble," joked the funnyman.

After a hearty laugh, conversation returned to the speech. Ms. Albright said that while the presidential candidate is incredibly charming in person, she was also pleased with the "diplomacy" of the speech.  read more »

We wonder if the staff of 15 Central Park West knows that New York City's swankiest new building will eventually have retail tenants like Best Buy and West Elm. Based on their reaction to a Starbucks cardboard coffee cup, we presume they may be in for a surprise.

Vanity Fair penetrated 15 Central Park West's limestone facade for its September issue, and architecture critic Paul Goldberger had no shortage of praise for the Robert A.M. Stern-designed building--"The striking thing was the extent to which the building attracted New Yorkers who were ready for a change and didn’t want to live in a tower of glass"--and for its developers.  read more »

Police in the Hamptons tell Page Six that headband-wearing socialite Arden Wohl was arrested on Saturday night in East Hampton for writing "Ralphy Lip-Shits" (and here we are filling in a few letters the Post rendered tastefully in dashes!) in red lipstick on the facade of Ralph Lauren's store there. But she showed American spirit for taking several miniature American flags that were part of the store's holiday decoration scheme. For which the police added a charge of petit larceny. [P6]

Ashley Dupré—when will we be done with her?—has made a very awkward social move, presenting herself at the Waverly Inn. It seemed to work! [P6]

Gossip Girl's Ed Westwick is reportedly in talks to design a clothing line! Expect to see many many shorts...[Fashionista]

Christie Brinkley and Peter Cook may soon reach a settlement, which means the crazy and mostly uninteresting details of their sordid marriage will presumably stop leaking to the press. [NY Daily News]  read more »

Vanity Fair has added New York contributors Vanessa Grigoriadis and (Observer-alumnus) Joe Hagan as contributing editors to its fantastically sizeable masthead, WWD's Irin Carmon reports this morning.

She also writes that it is expected that they will continue as New York contributing editors as well.

This morning Gina Gershon went on Live with Regis and Kelly—except that today it was "Live with Mario Lopez and Kelly"—to promote her Broadway play, Boeing Boeing.

Predictably, she used the opportunity to once again share some thoughts about Vanity Fair's recent article that made allegations about the actress and Bill Clinton.  read more »

James Rainey at the L.A. Times—the embattled L.A. Times!—scored the first interview with 61-year-old Mayhill Fowler, that dogged citizen journalist of the Huffington Post.

No, wait! She's not a journalist! And she doesn't want her sources—like Bill Clinton who told her on Monday that Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum was a scumbag—to know that either.  read more »

On the afternoon of June 2, Wolf Blitzer was talking to Vanity Fair national editor Todd Purdum about his 9,647-word piece about Bill Clinton.

“Some people who work for him now say that he seems to be angry all the time, angry when he gets up in the morning and angry when he goes to bed at night,” Mr. Purdum was saying.  read more »

During Bill Clinton's spectacular meltdown yesterday--calling Vanity Fair's Todd Purdum a scumbag, sleazy and slimy--he also decided to drag just about everyone into the melee. He said:

"The editor of Esquire-- he sent us an email yesterday and said it was the single sleaziest piece of journalism he'd seen in decades. He said it made him want to go take a shower and he was embarrassed to be a journalist when he read it."  read more »

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In yet another attempt to find a new and creative way to cover the over-exposed show Gossip Girl, Vanity Fair sat down with three--real!--Upper East Side high school girls they call A, M and T. The girls talk about going to Butter--"Butter is ok; I’m not really into it"--drinking cosmos, and how many people they know that went to rehab a la Serena van der Woodsen. Here are a few of our favorite answers:  read more »

On Monday, April 28, in the subterranean auditorium of the New York Public Library, Vanity Fair hosted a cocktail hour and convocation of experts grandly titled “Redesigning the World: A Green Way to the Future.” And environmentally concerned New Yorkers Mary Richardson Kennedy (wife of Robert Kennedy Jr.<  read more »

As big magazines dip their toes a little deeper into the Internet, Vanity Fair plans to write more about politics!

An editorial associate, Christopher Bateman, has been assigned the task of writing about it on their daily blog and introduced himself to the fraternity of webby political writers with an e-mail today. He explained the purpose of the blog: "What we're aiming to do on VF Daily is really produce some original reporting that will be of interest to savvy political observers."  read more »

Vanity Fair just announced that they are planning to cancel their annual Oscars after-party.

Here's the entire announcement, as posted on VF Daily this afternoon:

After much consideration, and in support of the writers and everyone else affected by this strike, we have decided that this is not the appropriate year to hold our annual Oscar party. We want to congratulate all of this year’s nominees and we look forward to hosting our 15th Oscar party next year.

David Margolick is leaving Vanity Fair for Portfolio, Media Mob has learned. Margolick, who most recently wrote a profile of Eliot Spitzer, has been a contributing editor at Vanity Fair since 1996 and covered culture and politics there. He made his big bones in a long stint at The New York Times (for which he covered the O.J. Simpson trial).  read more »